#102: Frauds And Visionaries – Bethany McLean

Bethany McLean is an investigative journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair.

Selected links

Follow Bethany: Website | Twitter
The Smartest Guys in the Room, by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
‘Is Enron Overpriced?’, Bethany’s March 5, 2001, article for Fortune
‘What Caused Enron?: A Capsule Social and Economic History of the 1990’s’, article by John Coffee
Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou
The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse, by Marriane Jennings
Spy The Lie, by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd and Don Tennant
Saudi America, by Bethany McLean
The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis

Topics discussed

How did Bethany become a journalist? 4:13
How did Enron come to be Enron? 6:30
How did Bethany see through Enron when most others were beguiled by it? 8:33
What was the reaction to Bethany’s original article expressing skepticism about Enron? 11:35
Why was Enron an example of ‘legal fraud’? 13:34
How to spot the “dogs” dressed up as “ducks”. 16:20
What were the ultimate causes of Enron’s collapse? 19:43
How did so many smart people at Enron become so corrupted? 30:06
Bethany’s book recommendations. 32:42
The fine line between frauds and visionaries. 34:56
Self-deception. 41:56
If Elizabeth Holmes succeeded, would the end have justified her means? 45:23
Elon Musk. 46:54
The truth about fracking. 55:14
How does Bethany stay organised as a journalist? 57:17
How does Bethany put questions to her sources? 58:36
Balancing accuracy with narrative flair. 59:35
Which factors help Bethany decide which facts to include in a story and which to omit from it? 1:05:40
How to construct an effective narrative. 1:11:46
What business model could scale up investigative journalism? 1:17:54
How does democracy survive the eroding of journalism’s traditional business model? 1:24:04

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